After the bailout: RIM's critical role.

• Position: IN FOCUS: A Message from the Editors

On October 3, President Bush signed into law a massive bailout/rescue plan passed by the U.S. Congress. The bill allows the government to eventually buy up to $700 billion in assets tied to shaky mortgages. The hope is that clearing banks' balance sheets of these bad loans will unfreeze credit markets and encourage them to start lending again, thus avoiding further financial catastrophe.

No one knows whether it will work, but financial markets around the world are holding their breath and hoping for the best. No matter the outcome, things will be different.

For example, the law curbs executive pay for companies selling assets or buying insurance from Uncle Sam. The law calls for two oversight committees: a Financial Stability Board, including the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairmen; and a congressional oversight panel, to which the Financial Stability Board will report.

In "Records and Information Management in the Post-Bailout World," John Montana, J.D., says we should expect the bar to be raised for compliance, systems, and process as a result of the legislation. Also expect more investigations, possibly criminal charges, civil litigation, and extensive new regulation in the near future.

For records managers, Montana says, the investigations and litigation will result in heavy, far-reaching demands for production records and data, regardless of the industry. He warns records managers to plan now for new, tougher rules on risk control and analysis.

In this new world defined by risk control and analysis, good leadership will be critical. Alan A. Andolsen, CRM, CMC, provides the ingredients for becoming a good leader in his article, which also defines the role of leadership m a records management program.

Always critical is protecting your organization's information assets, In "How to Create a Security Culture in Your Organization," Glenda Rotvold, Ph.D., examines the importance of assessment, incident response procedures, and social engineering testing in improving security awareness programs. Any good risk control and analysis plan must account for an organization's information security defense system. If you don't have one, it would be wise to make plans to implement one soon to protect your organization from myriad threats.

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